We need comprehensive dialogue on agric
A former Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Dr Alhassan Yakubu, is pushing for a comprehensive dialogue on agriculture to enable the sector to lead the effort towards economic recovery.
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He said discussions on the sector had often not reflected the reality but they were vague assumptions that it was a poor-performing sector.
However, he said, if the sector was observed from the perspective of specific projects being undertaken by the sector ministry for instance, “then we will really add value to what is happening on the ground as to what project is being undertaken and how far it has gone.
But if we just assume that nothing is happening, particularly when they produce one set of figures for a particular time frame and run with it, then it becomes a difficult matter, when there have been several figures thereafter.”
He spoke in an interview ahead of the Graphic Business-Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, October 31, 2017 at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra.
Dr Yakubu emphasised that the sector should always be discussed in totality of the economy at any point in time and where the national priorities were in relation to agriculture.
“If not, it’s as if the economy doesn’t affect agric and that agric is supposed to perform wonders irrespective of the economy but that shouldn’t be the case, because agric is part and parcel of the economy and any event will affect the sector,” he said.
Breakfast meeting
Dr Yakubu commended the initiative by the Graphic Communications Group Ltd (GCGL) and said although the agriculture sector was a such a high profile one in the economy, there had not been enough discourse on it in the media.
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He said it was laudable to bring experts and other stakeholders to discuss issues in a very multi-dimensional perspective such that conclusions thereof can inform policy makers to arrive at decisions to affect the sector positively.
“So if a reputable organisation like Graphic can come up with such an initiative to bring stakeholders together to discuss issues on how the sector can really contribute to the economy, then the meeting is fantastic and Graphic should be commended for it,” he said.
Expectations
Policy makers and stakeholders in the agricultural sector will converge on the Graphic Business-Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting series to deliberate on how Ghana can secure the economy using agriculture.
The event has become an agenda-setting event, where critical issues that impact on the economy are discussed.
As the government has outlined initiatives such as the planting for food and jobs (PFFJ) campaign to improve productivity in the sector, the meeting will provide the platform for stakeholders to discuss ways to modernise the sector to improve productivity and achieve food security and profitability for farmers.
It will also discuss ways to make the sector attractive to the teeming unemployed youth to take up farming as a full/part-time activity.